The present invention relates generally to the field of non-invasive imaging and more specifically to the field of medical imaging. In particular, the present invention relates to the generation of three-dimensional image data, such as in a mammography context.
Mammography is an imaging technique by which a breast may be non-invasively examined or screened to detect abnormalities, such as lumps, fibroids, lesions, calcifications, and so forth. Typically mammography employs radiographic techniques to generate images representative of the breast tissue. In particular, the breast is typically compressed to near uniform thickness and X-rays are passed through the compressed breast. The X-rays are attenuated by the breast tissue, with abnormalities presumably giving rise to discernible attenuation differences or structural distortions, and impact a detector. The detector, in turn generates responsive signals which may be processed to generate an image representing the breast tissue, which may be examined for visible indications of abnormalities.
While mammography is a useful tool for breast examination and screening, the images acquired by mammography may not provide as much information or detail as desired. In particular, the single view X-ray images associated with mammography may be difficult to interpret since all of the anatomic structure of the imaged breast is superimposed in the image. In other words, the mammogram provides only a two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional breast, meaning overlying and underlying structure may be superimposed on in a region of clinical interest. As a result, the sensitivity rate for X-ray mammography is relatively low (typically between 70% and 80%) and the false positive rate is undesirably high (between 70% and 90% of biopsies are normal). A technique for providing more information to a radiologist in a mammography context may, therefore, be desirable.